The present disclosure relates generally to an offshore platform, and more specifically, relates to apparatuses, systems, and methods for installing/securing an offshore platform to a bottom of a body of water and uninstalling/un-securing an offshore platform from a bottom of a body of water for re-use of same.
A typical offshore platform comprises, among other things, a purposively designed body structure having an overall height sufficient for at least an upper platform portion of the offshore platform to persistently extend above a water line when a base (i.e. the legs) of the offshore platform is secured to a bottom of a body of water (such as an ocean floor).
In general, an offshore platform is constructed on dry land, loaded onto a transport ship, transported to a desired location, and lowered in an upright position to a bottom of a body of water. The offshore platform is then permanently secured (or installed or anchored or locked) in place to the bottom of the body of water. Such permanent securing typically includes, among other things, an insertion of an elongated anchoring structure (a “pile”) into a corresponding receiving portion (a “sleeve”) that is permanently attached to a leg of the offshore platform; driving the pile sufficiently deep into the bottom of the body of water; repeating the inserting and driving of additional piles into other sleeves of the offshore platform; and filling grout, or the like, into remaining space(s) between an exterior surface of each of the piles and an interior surface of each of the corresponding sleeves so as to permanently secure the piles to the corresponding sleeves.
Recently, other methods of permanently securing a pile to a corresponding sleeve have been developed to replace and/or compliment the filling of grout, or the like. For example, swaging, or the like, has been used to create protruding portions to permanently secure a pile to a corresponding sleeve. A typical swaging operation may include, among other things, the use of a purposively designed sleeve having an interior surface that includes one or more indentations, bores, or the like. In operation, after a pile is inserted into a corresponding sleeve, a specialized tool may be inserted into an interior channel portion of the pile. The specialized tool may then be actuated so as to “push,” or expand, one or more portions of the pile outwardly into the indentation(s) of the interior surface of the sleeve so as to create protruding portions of the pile. The protruded portions of the pile may then be operable to cooperate with the indentations of the interior surface of the sleeve so as to permanently secure the pile to the corresponding sleeve. To complete the securing of the offshore platform, this process is then repeated for all of the piles inserted into all of the sleeves of the offshore platform.